A Boston College sports blog capturing the highs and lows of being a BC fan living 1,000 miles from Chestnut Hill.

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

New dorm = new athletic facilities

BC finally got approval for a new dorm on Comm Ave. As most know, it has taken nearly a decade to get this far. While this is big news for students -- and means fewer will live off campus -- it also has huge repercussions for BC Athletics.

Once the dorm is built, BC will then be able to renovate other buildings and create some new athletic fields. The Athletic fields were specifically mentioned in the approval and in the article. However, BC didn't announce the order or priority of the new athletic buildings, but you have to assume the Plex is high on the list. My hope is that any Plex renovation will include some sort of indoor space for Football. I also hope this leads to a true baseball/softball complex.

Bates was scheduled to reveal the Master Plan this summer. He didn't. I assumed it was related to the dorm approval. Now that BC can go forward on that front, I expect some clear plan from Bates to follow.

8 comments:

From a visit, the campus is beautiful. It is just limited with the reservoir and the hills. Somehow, athletics needs to come up with a way to tailgate. Tailgating in the parking garage really is not conducive. I could envision putting in some skyboxes to be used as student party centers. I would also like to see some campus party centers with very large screen tvs. The modern student is technology oriented and the university has to act accordingly. As for giving football preference on dorm space, look out for the p.c. police on that one. Another answer would be to pave over the reservoir and lay down some sod. That's facetious of course. However, the Heights has its limitations but that's why it's called the Heights. A Man's Reach Should Exceed His Grasp or What's a Heaven For. That was Joe Paterno's stock phrase but used by William Shakespeare first and not the W. Shakespeare who played for ND. I took the Green Line. Someone just has to bang the drum a little more loudly and do the Bobby Kennedy gig of dreaming things that never were. Why else did Phelan not drop the ball?

BC should lead a drive to get students to register to vote. 9,000 new voters in Newton, Brookline or Brighton/Boston might change the equation on how these things get decided, including rules on tailgating.

The plan all along has been to build the new dorm on the More Hall site, which would allow them to knock down Edmond's, then build the new plex on the Edmond's site. I never actually thought about the possibility of including the indoor football facility with the new plex. That could work well. The problem with putting it on Brighton is that it would be so far from Yawkey and the rest of the football facilities clustered around the stadium there. The only other viable option I can think of is to just essentially cover over the fenced off practice field on Shea. The footprint of the building wouldn't have to be much larger than the field that's already there. Combining it with the new plex might be better, though, and it would also probably be easier to pay for it if it's part of a larger project that will benefit all students and not just the football team.